[nellyt]

Having narrowed down our selection of builders we are now only talking to two (Today/DavidReid) and are having some plans drawn after speaking to their architects.

Once the plans are drawn the Q.surveyor comes up with a price and they then offer you a fixed price along with some line items that are +-?$ such as kitchen (as you haven't chosen them yet).

Fixed price sounded great until a few months ago. Although it will be nice to know the outlay the housing market is slowing significantly. 2 builders in ChCh have gone under in the last few months and there are rumours of others (yes security of the builder is another issue but not the point of this post). Build prices must be coming down and labour must be getting cheaper. Any significant financial outlay will not be for another 6 months.

Slight dilema. We cannot delay building. We don't want to pay too much. We don't want to force the price down (if we can) so much that the build quality get compromised. But prices in 6 months could be significantly less than they are now.

Are any others facing this same dilema recently?
Any builders offering more attractive arrangements in a falling market?

(We are not building off plan, neither is it a flip/move/tiny mod of a standard plan)

[Familyofmonkeys]

We have bought land outside Christchurch and are facing similar dilemas as we have own house design....which we understand should be a fairly easy straight forward build (although we haven't gone as far as choosing a definite building company yet or getting quantity surveying done etc).

We have held off building for a while, as from all the research we have done, it looks likely that new build prices will decrease somewhat and also with all the new building regs being introduced i.e. double glazing, insulation etc, they are going to have to be more competitively priced to attract customers in a falling market. Some companies were already including these things in their standard specs e.g. Golden Homes, so it will be interesting to see what happens. We have noticed that for 'off the plans' builds they are already starting to include more upgrades as part of their standard specs now, rather than reducing the build costs.

[Sam B]

We are already locked into a fixed price, but have had to postpone our build because we now can't afford the build/mortgage unless we sell the house we are in (crazy interest rates). However, no-one wants to buy the house we are in and the longer it goes on, the more prices will fall. Argghhh. Ever think you made some wrong financial decisions along the way?

[hball]

Not sure that build costs will be trending downwards - quality product costs seem to be consistant and so far there doesn't seem to be many trades willing to drop their rates either! Perhaps they too are feeling the pinch and need every cent to keep up with their own higher mortgage rates etc.

The effect of the new changes will be to increase build cost even further, and while some companies are now including items in their standard specification which were once upgrades they will be showing that additional cost somewhere!

If only the price of the land would come down...

[LesleyS]

This is also a dilemma that we will son be facing. Our Architect has almost finished the plans, and we will be in a position for builders to quote their prices - however, we are still wondering if financially we will be able to negotiate a better housing deal long term by buying in an already decreasing market a property that is already built.

[neilw71]

Building material costs are only going one way - upwards and very quickly at the moment. Wages should also be going up as the cost of living rises.

If you are trying to negotiate downwards, you are in effect only asking the builder to cut his profit margin for doing the same job. I'd be careful expecting too much as the pressure will then be on to cut corners.

If you get a price you are happy with and consider fair - grab it and don be greedy :)

Neil

[Caroline and Dave]

Hi,
We fixed our price with our builder over a year ago but because of problems with the land ,planning permission etc,we have only just started building.The price remains fixed except for extra costs that have occurred. We have checked things recently like the bathroom suites we chose and they have gone up considerably, yet we still pay the fixed price. The govt rates for building costs are a bit late in coming out but as of July last year it was still increasing and has always shown an increase.I think we were lucky to have our price fixed as I do not see building costs coming down dramatically if at all.
See here
http://www.dbh.govt.nz/bofficials-estimated-building-costs#map1

[steve&carrie]

new house builders have always been competitive and seem to have worked on high turnover rather than high profit margins to make their money. So I can't see build costs dropping much, if at all, and section prices don't seem to be moving much at mo either. I think in the short term, at least, you will be paying a premium to have a brand new house!!